(Vice Comes), was anciently an officer under an earl, to whom, during his attendance at court, acted as deputy to look after the affairs of the county. The name was afterwards employed as an arbitrary title of honour, without any shadow of office pertaining to it. Henry VI.; when, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he created John Beaumont a peer by the name of Viscount Beaumont, which was the first instance of the kind. A count is created by patent. His mantle is two doublets and a half of plain fur, and his coronet has only a row of pearls close to the circle.